Decision makers

Urge the Senate to Preserve Access to Birth Control

Anti-choice Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is using a transportation bill to try to undo the entire birth-control coverage policy.

If this amendment passes, it would be a disaster for women and men’s health on many fronts.

It would completely undo the no-cost birth control policy, which will ensure that virtually all women get their prescription birth control covered with no copay.

The amendment would also go so far as to allow insurers to deny coverage for any essential health service they deem immoral. Think about the implications. Women and men would be at the whim of their boss for HIV treatment. Single women who wish to have a child might be refused coverage for prenatal care.

The U.S. Senate could vote on the Blunt amendment at any time. Help us fight for birth-control coverage and basic health-care for women, wherever they work. Urge your Senators to oppose this harmful amendment today.

As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to oppose the Blunt amendment to the transportation bill (S.1813), and any other attempt to take away women’s birth-control coverage or overturn the Obama administration’s new birth-control coverage policy.

The Blunt amendment would allow insurers to refuse to cover any essential health benefit required by the Affordable Care Act. This would have the effect of totally undermining a linchpin protection for patients who are counting on a full package of benefits in the new health system. Among other consequences, the amendment would nullify the recent guidelines that require insurance companies to cover preventive services for women, including birth control without cost-sharing requirements.

While this alone would be reason enough to oppose the amendment, it actually has additional and far-reaching consequences. The amendment allows insurers to refuse coverage of any essential health service to which they might claim a “moral” objection, including HIV treatment, alcohol and other substance-abuse counseling, in-vitro services for same-sex couples, STI counseling, prenatal care for single women, and mental-health care. Insurers could refuse to cover these services for religious or moral reasons, or if the purchaser of the plan claimed the benefit is contrary to its religious or moral convictions.

Please do not vote to undermine basic health-care benefits that millions of women are counting on.